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1.27.2012

On June 19th the Swedish-based diving company Ocean Explorer discovered something they’ve never quite seen before. They were exploring in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland looking for sunken treasures when a very unusual image suddenly appeared on the sonar. A 197 feet diameter cylinder shaped object was discovered at the depth of approximately 275 feet. Treasure hunters, Peter Lindberg, Dennis Aasberg are in the midst of planning for their next excursion; to find out what’s there, and how it ended up in the Baltic Sea. Ocean Explorer’s Operation Baltic Discovery will unveil what people around the world are waiting to find out- What’s really there?

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26
confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of
verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars known to have
more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star.
Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form.

This artist's concept shows an overhead view
of the orbital position of the planets in systems with multiple
transiting planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. All the colored
planets have been verified. More vivid colors indicate planets that
have been confirmed by their gravitational interactions with each other
or the star. Several of these systems contain additional planet
candidates (shown in grey) that have not yet been verified. Image
credit: NASA Ames/UC Santa Cruz

The planets orbit close to their host stars and range in size from 1.5
times the radius of Earth to larger than Jupiter. Fifteen are between
Earth and Neptune in size. Further observations will be required to
determine which are rocky like Earth and which have thick gaseous
atmospheres like Neptune. The planets orbit their host star once every
six to 143 days. All are closer to their host star than Venus is to our
sun.

Newly-discovered asteroid
2012 BX34 will fly past Earth on Jan. 27th only
77,000 km (0.2 lunar distances) away. There is no
danger of a collision with the 14-meter wide space
rock. Advanced amateur astronomers might be able
to observe the flyby as the asteroid brightens to
14th magnitude just before closest approach on Friday
at 1530 UTC.

1.26.2012

Like other bodies in the outer Solar
System, Pluto may have have rings orbiting it. Finding these rings could
be important for the safety of NASA's New Horizons mission - currently
en route to the tiny world.

An artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft as it visits Pluto in
2015. Instruments will map Pluto and its moon, Charon, providing detail
not only on the surface of the dwarf planet, but also about its shape,
which could reveal whether or not an ocean lies beneath the ice. Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

In the distant outer
Solar System, rings are nearly ubiquitous. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune all have rings, leaving Pluto as the only outer planet without
rings.

1.23.2012

This artist's illustration gives an impression of how common planets are around the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The planets, their orbits, and their host stars are all vastly magnified compared to their real separations. A six- year search that surveyed millions of stars using the microlensing technique concluded that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. The average number of planets per star is greater than one. Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO. Click to enlarge.

Our Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets, according to a detailed statistical study based on the detection of three planets located outside our solar system, called exoplanets.

A new analysis of radar data from NASA's Cassini mission, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, has revealed regional variations among sand dunes on Saturn's moon Titan. The result gives new clues about the moon's climatic and geological history.

Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that the sizes and patterns of dunes on Saturn's moon Titan vary as a function of altitude and latitude.

Dune fields are the second most dominant landform on Titan, after the seemingly uniform plains, so they offer a large-scale insight into the moon's peculiar environment. The dunes cover about 13 percent of the surface, stretching over an area of 4 million square miles (10 million square kilometers). For Earthly comparison, that's about the surface area of the United States.

This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind.

The Solar and Heliosphere Observatory (SOHO) and the STEREO-Behind spacecraft have both detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab estimate a velocity of 2200 km. There is little doubt that the cloud is heading in the general direction of Earth. A preliminary inspection of SOHO/STEREO imagery suggests that the CME will deliver a strong glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24-25 as it sails mostly north of our planet.

1.22.2012

In July 2011, a rare martian meteorite fell to Earth - the first in about 50 years. The meteorite could hold clues to the history of the martian environment and the potential for life on the red planet.

Arizona State University currently owns the largest institutional piece of the martian meteorite Tissint. Credit: Photo by Laurence Garvie

Arizona State University’s (ASU) Center for Meteorite Studies has acquired a significant new sample for its collection: a rare martian meteorite that fell in southern Morocco in July 2011. It is the first martian fall in about 50 years.